Today, market in buzzing with green, environmental friendly, organic etc and this makes very difficult to understand what actually is green. There is no universal definition to say this particular product, work or service is green. However, since it is fundamental to understanding sustainable/green procurement let us enquire - what is “green”? There are lots of
misconceptions surrounding the word green and rightly so because it is central
to the idea of green procurement. A product or service can be considered green
if any or all of the criteria is satisfied:
v
The product has a
substantially less potential for pollution when compared to others in the same
category in terms of any stages in the life cycle, i.e., production, usage and
disposal.
v
The product is
recyclable or bio- degradable or made from recycled ingredients.
v
The product must make a significant contribution to
energy savings and non-renewable and natural resources through steps like
energy efficient manufacturing practices, efficient logistics and less packing
materials.
v The product must
contribute to a reduction of the adverse primary criteria which has the highest
environmental impact associated with the use of the product.
v The percentage
of hazardous or component in the product is within the permissible limits.
By this definition it is amply clear that a
product may not meet all the above criteria and can still be called ‘green’
product or rather ‘greener’ product. There is no product or service, which is
absolute green. For public authority, in order to satisfy product as green, it
is sufficient that the product in question meet the environmental requirements
set by the public authority in tender condition. The idea is not to waste time
and resources in search of absolute green product and service and do nothing but
start working on simple idea of 3R - Reduce, Reuse & Recycle.
An
organisation can initially start with simple environmental criteria into tender
specification to give right signal to market and integrate further criteria as
it progresses and gains experiences.
No comments:
Post a Comment